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Well I had this thing torn apart all this time and woul appreciate some additional advice on modding this thing for beastly output.

Ouchyfoot…how would you wire the emitters with the driver you recommended?

18Sixfifty…any more thoughts on your bridge suggestion? I’m afraid of messing up the driver…

Thanks/krono

I am trying to access the driver/wiring side of this beast. On the positive spring side, there is a retaining ring. However, once removed, the driver will not screw all the way out cuz wires twist/bind up before it can get to the end of the threads. On the business end, after the bezel is removed, the reflector won’t budge.

Could use some help!

krono

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No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light.

Are you sure it needs to screw out? Most of these simply pop out if you can line them up correctly and pull straight up. I had a couple of them that were a pain in the back side to get out but all of them eventually just popped out once I pulled hard enough straight up. They tend to bind up and it seems like they need to screw out when they really don’t. They were just pressed into place very tightly so the threads catch at the sides of the contact board.

On the Bezel it should unscrew but some of them are also very tight. I take a piece of wood (my back scratcher actually) and push it down onto the bezel top and use it as a lever to unscrew it. I know the top ridges on the bezel don’t line up perfectly and they are kind of smooth and not straight up and down. But generally if you push down with something like that, maybe a ruler would work too. I’m not sure if I’m explaining this right though because it’s hard to explain. Just putt something across the top of the bezel so that it catches in the wavy parts on top and use that to unscrew it with. It doesn’t seem like it will work at first because it likes to slip off, but if you push down hard enough it will eventually bite in just enough to give you the leverage you need.

Hope this helps.

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I’m a junky, I mod lights so I can sell lights so I can buy more light to mod so I can sell lights to buy more lights to mod.

Probably heavier wires and a spring mod will help. You could also take a pic of the driver there might be something that you can do there like jump a resistor.

Oh and yep. They all have a screw in the center, some have a second screw as well.

Chances are these are already wired in parallel but you can check that as well. If there is anything like 4S3P going on you can change that around to 3S4P and that will give you a boost. If you can take a picture of how they have it wired that will help too.

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I’m a junky, I mod lights so I can sell lights so I can buy more light to mod so I can sell lights to buy more lights to mod.

Hmmm I haven’t seen that driver before but it looks like you should be able to jump the 476. If it was me I would solder a small piece of copper wire directly over that resistor from one end to the other. But then I also have a bag full of dead drivers! I don’t have the knowledge to say exactly if it will work or not. Someone else might be able to help. Like I said, I would give it a shot but I’m not sure you want to take the chance and end up with a dead driver. If you do try it, you can always test it first with just a short burst. I know this is cheesy but I tape three batteries together with wires on the positive and negative and touch them to the driver after I do a resistor mod. Just for a second and longer if nothing bad happens. If you screw the body on and hit the button you might not have time to turn it off before you get the dreaded burnt smell of death.

As for the reflector make sure the O ring is out of the way and if you have an ice pick or something like that you can tap on the reflector from the bottom, this will usually knock it loose.

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I’m a junky, I mod lights so I can sell lights so I can buy more light to mod so I can sell lights to buy more lights to mod.

Ok it looks like you have four wires comming up to emitters that are positive and from each of those four they are branching off to two more emitters. So it’s 4P3S You can go to 6P2S and you should still be safe.

That would meant that the positive comes up and is connected directly to Six emitters on their positive and then from each of them to it’s own separate emitter also positive. Then do the same with the negative.

I’m not very good at explaining this so if you don’t get it let me know and I’ll try and draw you a diagram.

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I’m a junky, I mod lights so I can sell lights so I can buy more light to mod so I can sell lights to buy more lights to mod.

These aren’t protected but so far have showed the lowest internal resistance and the highest capacity. http://www.illumn.com/batteries-chargers-and-powerpax-carriers/26650-kee... They are replacing every other 26650 I have. Run your light on medium and monitor the volts until it starts climbing too high or shuts off. I’m finding a lot of big multi cell drivers cutting off at around 3.1-3.4 volts per cell. With a low voltage protection built in you’ll know the amp draw at shut off. If no low voltage protection I’d use at least one protected cell.

I have that same driver in a TR-9T6. It was a pain to pull it out too because they just shoved it in burs and all and it basically was locked in place by the retaining ring threads.

I didn't want to soup mine up much as I didn't want to pull the emitters to put them on copper. So I just put a 70N02 FET in that empty FET bay. It increased tail current up to 6 amps. So about 2 amps per emitter (3S3P). Heats up real fast.

Some day I will properly mod the light. Just wanted a modest boost for now and that did the trick for mine.

Direct drive from 3 cells? That would require putting a lot of faith in the cells having enough voltage sag to keep it alive.

True, you wouldn’t want to use sony 30amps or heavy gauge wire either. Thin wires and king kongs would work. At least I’m pretty darn sure it would. I would give it a shot but then again I’m not too worried about frying a few XML’s.

I know it would work with noctigons and good thermal epoxy. Might be iffy though if there isn’t good paste under there.

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I’m a junky, I mod lights so I can sell lights so I can buy more light to mod so I can sell lights to buy more lights to mod.

Overcurrent will melt the bond wires, but too much voltage will zap the dies even at low current. I have done 5 XREs in parallel driven from 2 series 18650s and it lived (and was stupid bright) but only with no-name Chinese laptop pulls... I tried it with INR 15Qs and all 5 LEDs died instantly without even giving the faintest flash beforehand. ZAP!

I’ll be using 3 brand new protected KeepPower 5200 mAh 26650s…if that makes a difference.

I haven’t looked up the keepPowers recently but I think they are pretty high amps if I remember right. 4P3S would be the way to go I would think. It’s really goofy though. I have been messing around with these in various combinations trying to get the most out of them and the resistance from the driver itself seems to make a huge amount of difference as well as the wires used. 4p3s should be a ton of amps anyway and I guess even if you did manage to zap it up there higher you would probably lose a lot to thermal sag within ten seconds or so anyway. Try 4p3s and if you are still only getting around 5,000 lumens then you you can always try and bump it up some more by rewiring it later. Also some of these drivers are really easy to get too hot and kill them too. Start without putting the tail cap on for sure. Just ground it with a screwdriver or something and go through the modes that way. If it works and nothing fries and it’s the output you want you should consider potting the driver after that. Also when you do put the tailcap on have your light meter handy and watch for either climbing amps or dropping off really fast. If either one happens turn it off quick before you fry something.

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I’m a junky, I mod lights so I can sell lights so I can buy more light to mod so I can sell lights to buy more lights to mod.

If I were you, I would order a Zener modded FET driver from RMM and wire it 4P3S.

I used the FET driver in the almost the same light, but with 9 x XML wired 3P3S, and it blew me away. Here’s the link to My Light

Is this what you are talking about?
At $16 it is too much. I was hoping for a simple resistor mod or something else that would utilize the same driver. I don’t want to spend a lot on older emitters. Any other ideas?

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No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light.

I have that same driver in a TR-9T6. It was a pain to pull it out too because they just shoved it in burs and all and it basically was locked in place by the retaining ring threads.

I didn’t want to soup mine up much as I didn’t want to pull the emitters to put them on copper. So I just put a 70N02 FET in that empty FET bay. It increased tail current up to 6 amps. So about 2 amps per emitter (3S3P). Heats up real fast.

Some day I will properly mod the light. Just wanted a modest boost for now and that did the trick for mine.

EDIT: Oh, just using 3 King Kong ICR’s in mine.

What is a reasonable US source for these FETs?

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No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light.

There was somebody on ebay that had a partial reel selling them in lots of 10pcs, all gone now and that part# has been superseded, and the replacement is nowhere as good at the low voltages (or rather, the limited headroom) used in these direct drive circuits. The best replacement we've found that's still available new is the AOD510 (http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/AOD510/785-1481-1-ND/3603497).